A report trumpeted by Governor Christie’s administration Thursday as the “comprehensive and exhaustive” account of the events surrounding the George Washington Bridge lane closures places the blame squarely on the high-level officials and advisers who have already left their jobs in the wake of the scandal, while concluding that Christie and the remaining members of his inner circle had no knowledge of the traffic jams or related allegations.

Randy Mastro of the New York law firm Gibson and Dunn discussing the report at a press conference Thursday.

The 344-page report commissioned by the Christie administration and executed by the New York law firm Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, described the two former officials at the center of the scandal as unpredictable and emotionally distraught. Former Port Authority official David Wildstein is said to have “crazy” ideas and former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly is described at various points in the report as “emotional,” “nervous” and “desperate.”

* Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich and Zimmer, the Hoboken mayor, declined to be interviewed, although investigators obtained documents from the two municipalities through Open Public Records Act requests

The report said Wildstein claims he told the governor about the lane closures during a visit to the 9/11 memorial site in lower Manhattan but added that the governor has no recollection of that conversation — a claim repeated by Christie during a Thursday night television appearance on ABC.

The report revealed that Kelly and former Christie campaign manager Bill Stepien had been in a “personal relationship,” one that Stepien ended the month before the lane closures. And it portrayed Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who has alleged that Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno tried to strong-arm her into supporting a real estate development, as delusional, saying “Whatever subjective perceptions she may have do not match objective reality.”

Throughout the report, Christie is consistently portrayed as being unaware of what his staff was doing regarding the lane closures. When he did find out, the report said, he acted decisively – but not with indifference. He was “welling with tears” as he announced to his staff that he had decided to fire Kelly for “lying to him” and to sever his ties with Stepien, the report said.

The explosive e-mails and text messages, obtained and first reported by The Record, sparked a political firestorm that extended far beyond New Jersey and Fort Lee. For full coverage, click here.

The report, however, is gentle on Stepien and former Port Authority Executive Director Bill Baroni. Christie cut ties with Stepien and Baroni resigned in the wake of the scandal. It finds that they “engaged in conduct during or after the lane realignment that is concerning,” but does not find any evidence that they knew of any ulterior motive.

The report also consistently refers to the lane closures as a “lane realignment,” using the term more than 300 times. In comparison, the term “lane closures” is used only in quoted passages.

The conclusions in the report, which is said to have cost $1 million, were widely expected, but assailed by Democratic critics and some of those named in the narrative as a “whitewash” and a “sham.” The lead attorney, Randy Mastro, said in a press conference Thursday, however, that he did |not know how much it cost. The administration has not released any bills related to the internal probe.

Mastro and his team, which included five other former federal prosecutors — including one with close ties to Christie — relied on interviews with Christie and at least 70 others, many of whom worked for him or were appointed by him. Investigators also reviewed 250,000 documents over two months as media pressure mounted to provide an explanation of the lane closings. Those documents were not provided until Thursday to a joint legislative committee that is conducting its own investigation.

At times, the narrative is painstakingly detailed, with the accounts of conversations provided from several perspectives and backed up with transcripts of text messages and other internal communications.

But several key people — including Kelly, Zimmer, Stepien and Port Authority Chairman David Samson — were not interviewed. And those who agreed to participate were not speaking under oath.

The report is the outcome of one of several inquiries into the matter. A joint legislative panel led by Assemblyman John Wisniew­ski and Sen. Loretta Weinberg, both Democrats, has subpoenaed members of Christie’s office, his appointees at the Port Authority and the governor’s campaign as it investigates the lane closures. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is also looking into the matter. Federal prosecutors investigating the scandal have sat with Zimmer regarding her allegations.

The report discredits Zimmer’s allegations that Samson played a role in the Port Authority’s funding of a study in Hoboken that benefited one of his law firm’s clients. But it doesn’t address several other conflict-of-interest allegations involving Samson’s law firm and his role at the Port Authority. Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed documents related to Samson’s votes at the Port Authority.

Christie takes to TV

The report’s release set off a predictable chain of events.

The Christie administration provided an outline of “key findings,” in a Thursday afternoon press release. Its bullet-pointed highlights included: “There is no evidence that any member of the Governor’s staff, besides Bridget Kelly, was involved in the decision to realign the lanes or took any action to cover it up;” and, “Speculation that there was a culture of retaliation within the Governor’s Office is ‘unsubstantiated.’Ÿ”

Christie gave his first one-on-one interview, apart from his weekly radio show, that dealt with the allegations to ABC’s Diane Sawyer on Thursday evening. That interview was taped before Mastro’s news conference and was part of a carefully choreographed unveiling of the report’s findings. Today, Christie is scheduled to hold his first state-house news conference since his Jan. 9 event.

“I feel like I let people down,” Christie said during Thursday’s television interview. “I spent a lot of time in the last 11 weeks thinking about what did I do if anything to contribute to this and I don’t believe that I did. But I’m certainly disappointed in myself that I wasn’t able to pick up these traits in these people. I’m disappointed in myself that I didn’t look closer, that I trusted too much.”

Democratic critics released a flurry of press releases poking holes in the report. They included a statement released by the Democratic National Committee issued Thursday afternoon that called the report a, “expensive sham.”

Weinberg and Wisniewski said in a statement that it would not be the final word on the matter.

“This review has deficiencies that raise questions about a lack of objectivity and thoroughness,” the statement said. “We will continue to pursue our investigation wherever the facts lead. We want a full accounting of the lane closings and any related abuses of power and what can be done to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

Zimmer called the report a “whitewash,” in a statement, in which she pointed out that none of the interviews Mastro or his team conducted were under oath.

“Randy Mastro could have written his report the day he was hired and saved the taxpayers the million dollars in fees he billed in generating this one-sided whitewash of serious misconduct by the Christie administration,” the statement said.

And Bill Stepien’s attorney, Kevin Marino, called the reference to his client’s brief relationship with Kelly “appalling.”

“What is the relevance?” he asked, noting that the relationship began and ended after Stepien left the governor’s office, before the lane closures and while both were single. “The cynical view would be that one way to draw attention away from serious questions about the report is to enter something salacious into the record.”

One of those questions, he said, is that the report is an investigation into the office that is paying for it.

He also said the report showed Christie’s decision to cut ties with Stepien was “errant and improper.”

“I’ve searched this report in vain for a single piece of evidence to support the decision to banish Mr. Stepien,” he said. Asked why Stepien refused to cooperate with the investigators if he had nothing wrong, Marino said Stepien’s cooperation would have represented a waiver of the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination while a criminal probe and a parallel legislative inquiry are under way.

Mastro served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York under former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, then the U.S. attorney for that district. When Giuliani was elected mayor, Mastro served in his administration as chief of staff and a deputy mayor. Giuliani has been an ardent Christie supporter and sat alongside the governor at the Super Bowl.

Debra Wong Yang, who like Christie was named a federal prosecutor by George W. Bush in the early 2000s, is a member of the team of lawyers with ties to Christie. When he was U.S. attorney, Christie awarded Yang a contract as a federal monitor in 2007.

Her daughter, Taylor Wong, worked in Christie’s office during the summer of 2011.

Started last spring

The events laid out in the report begin in the spring of 2013, as the governor was preparing for his reelection campaign, lining up local politicians to support him and shuffling members of his staff.

The lane closures were carried out, at least in part, to target Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, the report said. But it finds no clear motivations.

“The common speculation that this was an act of political retaliation because Mayor Sokolich failed to endorse the governor for re-election is not established by the evidence that we have seen,” it read.

Wildstein, the report said, had the original idea to close the traffic lanes, “like so many other ‘crazy’ ones he’d had before that never got off the ground.”

It said that Sokolich, a Demo­crat, was considered early on as one of many who might cross party lines to endorse Christie. But by August, it was already clear that would not happen.

“Wildstein appears to have proposed this lane realignment, and then Kelly appears to have blessed it. Without the ability to interview Wildstein or Kelly, however, we are unable to determine conclusively what the ulterior motive was that compelled the operation,” the report said.

The back-and-forth among Wildstein, Kelly, Baroni, Stepien and a few other Christie and Port Authority officials during the four mornings of traffic jams have been reported extensively as internal emails and text messages have trickled out, starting with Kelly’s now infamous email, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” first published by The Record.

The report, however, provides new accounts of behind-the-scenes events as the official explanation – that the lanes were closed for a traffic study – unraveled.

Wildstein and Kelly tried to delete personal emails that showed their planning, the report said. And Kelly was described as upset and emotional by several Christie staff members on different occasions, the report said. Wildstein and Baroni told members of the Christie administration it was a legitimate traffic study, and Wildstein coached Baroni to testify to that effect at Assembly hearing in November on the issue, the report reads.

By December, Wildstein realized that he had to resign, the report read. While he continued to insist that it was a legitimate traffic study, he told Christie officials it was his idea, the report read. He also tried to deflect the blame, telling Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak, whom he met for dinner as he was preparing his resignation, that Kelly and Stepien also knew, and that he had the emails to prove it, the report read.

Drewniak, who is still on Christie’s staff, said little of substance during that meeting, the report said.

“Drewniak believed that Wildstein would not remain in his role for much longer, and he endeavored to primarily listen to Wildstein,” the report said. “Drewniak observed that Wildstein seemed anxious during the dinner.”

Wildstein also said during that meeting that he had mentioned the “issue in Fort Lee” to the governor at a public event during the lane realignment. The governor does not recall the conversation, the report said.

Drewniak then reported Wildstein’s claims to the governor’s office, as did others who had heard rumors about Kelly’s emails, the report read.

The governor held a meeting on Dec. 12 demanding answers from his staff. He also asked Kelly and Stepien about the issue directly, the report said. Both denied any involvement, and Kelly told the governor’s chief of staff, Kevin ­O’Dowd, she had searched her emails, even showing him a couple, the report read.